US9870074B2 - Control panel for aircraft - Google Patents

Control panel for aircraft Download PDF

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Publication number
US9870074B2
US9870074B2 US14/903,625 US201314903625A US9870074B2 US 9870074 B2 US9870074 B2 US 9870074B2 US 201314903625 A US201314903625 A US 201314903625A US 9870074 B2 US9870074 B2 US 9870074B2
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Prior art keywords
display state
current value
indicator
control unit
operable
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US14/903,625
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US20160216781A1 (en
Inventor
David Robbins
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Thales Holdings UK PLC
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Thales Holdings UK PLC
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    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F3/00—Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
    • G06F3/01—Input arrangements or combined input and output arrangements for interaction between user and computer
    • G06F3/03—Arrangements for converting the position or the displacement of a member into a coded form
    • G06F3/033—Pointing devices displaced or positioned by the user, e.g. mice, trackballs, pens or joysticks; Accessories therefor
    • G06F3/0362—Pointing devices displaced or positioned by the user, e.g. mice, trackballs, pens or joysticks; Accessories therefor with detection of one-dimensional [1D] translations or rotations of an operating part of the device, e.g. scroll wheels, sliders, knobs, rollers or belts
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B64—AIRCRAFT; AVIATION; COSMONAUTICS
    • B64D—EQUIPMENT FOR FITTING IN OR TO AIRCRAFT; FLIGHT SUITS; PARACHUTES; ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF POWER PLANTS OR PROPULSION TRANSMISSIONS IN AIRCRAFT
    • B64D43/00—Arrangements or adaptations of instruments
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F3/00—Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
    • G06F3/01—Input arrangements or combined input and output arrangements for interaction between user and computer
    • G06F3/048—Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
    • G06F3/0484—Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI] for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
    • G06F3/04847—Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
    • H03J—TUNING RESONANT CIRCUITS; SELECTING RESONANT CIRCUITS
    • H03J1/00—Details of adjusting, driving, indicating, or mechanical control arrangements for resonant circuits in general
    • H03J1/02—Indicating arrangements
    • H03J1/04—Indicating arrangements with optical indicating means
    • H03J1/045—Indication of the tuning band, the bandwidth, tone control, the channel number, the frequency, or the like
    • H03J1/047—Indication of the tuning band, the bandwidth, tone control, the channel number, the frequency, or the like using electronic means, e.g. LED's

Definitions

  • Embodiments disclosed herein relate to aircraft control panels.
  • Aircraft require manual control by pilots and other operatives. While automated control has become increasingly sophisticated, there remains a need for a pilot to engage with the control of an aircraft, particularly on landing and take-off, but also in-flight.
  • Control of an aircraft involves selection, by a user, of values for a multiplicity of control variables.
  • Some control variables are binary, in that a control system is selected either to be in an ‘On’ state or an ‘Off’ state. An example of this is the deployment of landing gear.
  • Other controls involve selection of a scalar quantity—the pilot is expected to select a value within a selection range.
  • Yet further controls involve the selection of one of a set of options.
  • a first embodiment provides an aviation user interface unit for provision of a user interface for control of a controllable quantity, the user interface unit comprising
  • FIG. 1 illustrates a front panel of an aviation controller in accordance with a described embodiment
  • FIG. 2 illustrates a side elevation of the controller illustrated in FIG. 1 ;
  • FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the controller illustrated in FIG. 1 ;
  • FIG. 4 is a state transition diagram for an indicator, in use, of the controller illustrated in FIG. 1 ;
  • FIG. 5 is a state transition diagram for a block of indicators of the controller illustrated in FIG. 1 ;
  • FIG. 6 is a series of representations of blocks of indicators in various states as will be described in due course.
  • FIG. 1 illustrates a front face of a controller in accordance with an embodiment described herein.
  • the controller 10 comprises a front plate 20 into which are mounted a rotary knob 30 and two selector buttons 40 .
  • the rotary knob 30 is substantially cylindrical, with formations (as illustrated, ribs) about its curved surface to aid gripping.
  • the selector buttons 30 are each surrounded by five indicators 50 .
  • the indicators are substantially rectangular, and radiate from their respective selector button 40 . They are arranged about the selector button 40 , at 60 degree intervals, so as to form a substantially hexagonal arrangement, the sixth point of the arrangement being vacant and located at the base of the arrangement.
  • the indicators 50 are oriented so that one indicator is vertically above the button 40 as viewed. The arrangement encourages, in the mind of the user, a sense that the indicators range from a low value to a high value in an adjustment range. Labels or other markings may be applied to the front panel 20 , adjacent the indicators 50 (or, in another example, overlaid on the indicators 50 ) to provide the user with information as to what each indicator signifies.
  • FIG. 2 also illustrates that the controller 10 comprises a connector 60 , to enable connection of the controller to other electronics systems, and particularly to equipment controlled by the controller.
  • the controller 10 is illustrated as it might be envisaged for use in a rack based aircraft electronics system. In this way, it will be understood that the controller 10 might be slotted into an existing framework of control systems. However, the reader will appreciate that a more bespoke design is not excluded from consideration.
  • the various external elements of the controller engage with internal electronic components of the controller.
  • the external selector buttons 40 engage with internal push switches 42 .
  • the rotary knob 30 engages with a rotary encoder, which translates rotational movement of the rotary knob about its axle (not illustrated) into electrical signals.
  • Signals from the rotary encoder 32 and the push switches 42 are passed to a processor 100 , which is configured to process these signals under the control of a computer program, stored in memory 110 . It will be understood that the configuration of the processor may be as illustrated, or a more integrated arrangement might be envisaged, such as an application specific device.
  • the processor 100 is able to present output signals to the indicators (organised into indicator blocks, as illustrated) and control signals to a port 120 engaged with the connector 60 .
  • the device as illustrated is capable of controlling two controllable quantities. During use, an indicated selection will always display for each controllable quantity. For this, reference is made to FIG. 6 .
  • Each of the views of a selected one of the indicator clusters essentially creates the impression of a dial.
  • the “dial” provides a coarse indication of the currently selected value of the controllable quantity allocated to the indicator cluster in question.
  • the underlying controllable quantity may be capable of being varied over a finer quantization of possible values, or may even be controllable over a continuous (i.e. non-discrete) range.
  • the controller is employed to control the volume level of audio presented to the user, it may be the case that the volume level can be adjusted through, for instance, over 50 different possible discrete volume levels. These volume levels would then be mapped on a many-to-one basis to the five available indicators, as only approximate indication to the user is required.
  • FIGS. 6A, 6B and 6C respectively, the indicators corresponding to “minimum”, “medium” and “maximum” values for the controlled quantity are illuminated. Likewise, the same indicators are illuminated in FIGS. 6D, 6E and 6F .
  • FIGS. 6A and 6D are the colour of illumination. In this example, and with reference to the limitations imposed by the need to illustrate in black and white, FIG. 6A is intended to show illumination in green (using cross-hatching), while FIG. 6D shows illumination in white (using simple diagonal hatching). Those indicators that are not illuminated are depicted as blank outlines (i.e. no hatching). This likewise applies to the other figures.
  • a first display state described here as an “off” state
  • the indicator corresponding to the value of the controllable quantity will illuminate in white.
  • This display state is indicative of the controllable quantity being unavailable (such as if controllable audio is muted).
  • the user will select that controllable quantity, to be controlled, by pressing the respective dome button 40 .
  • the illumination of the selected value of the controllable quantity will change colour, to green, and the illumination will change from continuous to intermittent (i.e. flashing).
  • the selected value is adjustable, by rotation of the rotatable knob 30 .
  • rotation of the knob 30 will cause adjustment of the selected value of the controllable quantity.
  • the selected value may map to another of the indicators. If that is the case, then this will cause activation of illumination of another of the indicators, and extinguishment of the hitherto illuminated indicator.
  • the newly illuminated indicator will be intermittently illuminated in green, as befits the fact that the controllable quantity is still in the “on-adjustable” state.
  • the controller In this “on-adjustable” state, user inactivity will trigger a timeout. This timeout will cause the controller to enter a third display state, described herein as an “on” state.
  • the controllable quantity In the “on” state, the controllable quantity is considered to be active, in that indication of the value of the controllable quantity is relevant.
  • the “on” state equates to the control of audio volume—when the audio is in use (i.e. not muted) the indicators will show the user the selected level of audio volume.
  • the “on” state is associated with continuous illumination, in green, of the relevant indicator. This contrasts well with the white illumination associated with the “off” state.
  • the state transitions provide that, from any initial display state, two actuations of the push button selector will result in the current indicator being assigned the “off” state.
  • An illuminator 50 can, of course, be extinguished. This condition is appropriate for all illuminators 50 in a cluster other than one which is in one of the “off”, “on-adjustable” or “on” states noted above.
  • an indicator is in the “off” state
  • a button depression will cause transition to the “on-adjustable” state.
  • rotary motion of the rotatable knob 30 will be recognised by the processor. Detection of rotary motion can be translated into varying of the controlled quantity. If the controlled quantity is varied sufficiently, such that the value of the quantity maps to another indicator in the cluster, then the hitherto illuminated indicator will be extinguished and the newly mapped indicator will be illuminated (in the “on-adjustable” state, i.e. flashing green). The state transition process for the hitherto illuminated indicator will thus be exited altogether and the newly illuminated indicator would then adopt the same state transition process. In essence, therefore, the state transition process overlays the designation of the indicator to be illuminated.
  • the controller If the timeout condition is satisfied, or if another push button is depressed, then the adjustment of the controlled quantity is considered to have ceased, and the controller therefore enters the “on” state in respect of this quantity.
  • the currently active indicator is then continuously illuminated green, to indicate that control of the quantity persists, at the selected level.
  • Table 1 sets out the four states in which an illuminator can be held:
  • FIG. 5 illustrates the response of the processor 100 to rotation of the rotatable knob. As will be understood, this only takes effect in respect of a controllable quantity corresponding to an indicator which is in the “ON-ADJUST” state. As shown, five value states are defined, ranging from “LOWEST” to “HIGHEST”. To avoid needless repetition, the five states are not listed here—the reader is invited to make reference to the drawings.
  • the rotatable knob is configured to rotate smoothly, i.e. without significant variation in resistance to rotation.
  • the rotational encoder may be capable of detecting relatively small angular displacements, and is not in any way tied to the discrete display provided by the five indicators of the indicator cluster. That is, while the indicator cluster is capable only of generating one of five different value states, the underlying control of the controllable variable may be much finer. For instance, if a range of a controllable variable is encoded by an 8-bit binary number, the variable can adopt one of 256 different values. This range can then be mapped to the 5 indicator levels by a simple division of the range, in a roughly 51-to-1 mapping. In summary, this provides coarse indication of a finely controlled variable.
  • controllable quantities may also be applicable to selection of one of many selectable options. So, for instance, different modes of use of an aircraft, each of which may be deemed mutually exclusive, can be defined, and then one of these modes can then be selected on one of these indicators.
  • the embodiment is not limited to sets of five options, per indicator.
  • the embodiment indicates use of different colours to distinguish between states, it may also be possible to make distinction merely by difference in illumination intensity. That is, a low intensity illumination could be used for the first state (“OFF”) while the second and third states (“ON-ADJUST” and “ON”) would then be associated with higher intensity illumination.
  • Audio could be generated from numerous sources. Each source could have a separate indicator cluster. Thus, while the illustrated embodiment shows two indicator clusters, the reader will appreciate that a controller may have many more clusters, depending on the application. The operator will have a need to control volume levels for each source, but the present embodiment enables this to be done with a single rotary control.
  • Each cluster represents a source. If a cluster is in the “on” state, this is indicative of that source being played out to the operator's headset. If a cluster is in the “off” state, the source is, in effect, muted. However, even in the “off” state, that source has an associated volume output, which is stored in the controller and is indicated by the corresponding indicator cluster.
  • the operator can determine, at a glance, which source is currently in the “on” state, because that source will be indicated by green illumination of the relevant indicator of that indicator cluster.
  • a source may be unavailable, in which case the indicator cluster in question will not indicate a volume level—all indicators of the cluster will be in an extinguished condition.
  • buttons twice can result in that indicator cluster being placed in the “off” state.
  • This has the associated effect, in this example, of muting that audio source and, indeed, not activating any other audio source. This may be useful for an operator in that it enables the operator to eliminate audio quickly without looking at the panel to determine the current state of each illumination cluster—any double button selection will do.
  • controllable variables which does not exclude the control of such variables by other means.
  • some controls may be subject to automatic control, as well as manual control. It may be that other avionic components may be able to send control messages to the presently described controller, to set controllable variables to particular values.
  • the indicators will indicate the present value of the controllable variables. The reader will appreciate that this is not achievable using mechanical switches and controls.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
  • Human Computer Interaction (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Aviation & Aerospace Engineering (AREA)
  • Mechanical Control Devices (AREA)
  • Switch Cases, Indication, And Locking (AREA)
  • Selective Calling Equipment (AREA)
  • User Interface Of Digital Computer (AREA)
US14/903,625 2013-07-10 2013-07-10 Control panel for aircraft Active 2033-09-18 US9870074B2 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
PCT/GB2013/051832 WO2015004407A1 (fr) 2013-07-10 2013-07-10 Panneau de commande pour aéronef

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US20160216781A1 US20160216781A1 (en) 2016-07-28
US9870074B2 true US9870074B2 (en) 2018-01-16

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US (1) US9870074B2 (fr)
EP (1) EP3020131B1 (fr)
CN (1) CN105556842A (fr)
CA (1) CA2917756C (fr)
WO (1) WO2015004407A1 (fr)

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* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN112969987B (zh) * 2019-09-10 2024-10-18 微软技术许可有限责任公司 为旋转控制部件动态提供可感知反馈
CN111137465B (zh) * 2019-12-13 2021-10-15 中国航空工业集团公司西安飞机设计研究所 飞机音频设备外话控制调节装置和方法

Citations (13)

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Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB2174663A (en) 1985-04-19 1986-11-12 Smiths Industries Plc Aircraft MLS instrument display
US5841428A (en) 1993-11-05 1998-11-24 Intertactile Technologies Corporation Rotary circuit control devices with changeable graphics
US5872528A (en) * 1994-12-28 1999-02-16 Sextant Avionique Multichannel coder of single-channel structure
US6326956B1 (en) 1998-08-24 2001-12-04 Intertactile Technologies Corporation Circuit control devices utilizing electronic display screen light
US20030028261A1 (en) 2001-08-06 2003-02-06 Peterson Gregory A. Appliance control system with LED operation indicators
WO2003036455A1 (fr) 2001-10-02 2003-05-01 Ziad Badarneh Systeme interactif
US20040207607A1 (en) 2003-04-15 2004-10-21 Will Specks Operating element having an integrated display element, and a method for command output using an operating element
WO2005025986A1 (fr) 2003-09-17 2005-03-24 Esg Elektroniksystem- Und Logistik- Gesellschaft Mit Beschränkter Haftung Poste de commande
US20050231391A1 (en) * 2004-04-01 2005-10-20 Boyns Frederick C Flight timer
US20100097198A1 (en) * 2006-12-25 2010-04-22 Pro-Tech Design Corporation Haptic feedback controller
US20100283636A1 (en) 2007-11-14 2010-11-11 The Boeing Company Multi-function switches for a display
US20120140934A1 (en) 2010-12-03 2012-06-07 Garmin International, Inc. Aircraft audio panel routing
US20120140933A1 (en) 2010-12-03 2012-06-07 Garmin International, Inc. Aircraft audio panel

Patent Citations (13)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB2174663A (en) 1985-04-19 1986-11-12 Smiths Industries Plc Aircraft MLS instrument display
US5841428A (en) 1993-11-05 1998-11-24 Intertactile Technologies Corporation Rotary circuit control devices with changeable graphics
US5872528A (en) * 1994-12-28 1999-02-16 Sextant Avionique Multichannel coder of single-channel structure
US6326956B1 (en) 1998-08-24 2001-12-04 Intertactile Technologies Corporation Circuit control devices utilizing electronic display screen light
US20030028261A1 (en) 2001-08-06 2003-02-06 Peterson Gregory A. Appliance control system with LED operation indicators
WO2003036455A1 (fr) 2001-10-02 2003-05-01 Ziad Badarneh Systeme interactif
US20040207607A1 (en) 2003-04-15 2004-10-21 Will Specks Operating element having an integrated display element, and a method for command output using an operating element
WO2005025986A1 (fr) 2003-09-17 2005-03-24 Esg Elektroniksystem- Und Logistik- Gesellschaft Mit Beschränkter Haftung Poste de commande
US20050231391A1 (en) * 2004-04-01 2005-10-20 Boyns Frederick C Flight timer
US20100097198A1 (en) * 2006-12-25 2010-04-22 Pro-Tech Design Corporation Haptic feedback controller
US20100283636A1 (en) 2007-11-14 2010-11-11 The Boeing Company Multi-function switches for a display
US20120140934A1 (en) 2010-12-03 2012-06-07 Garmin International, Inc. Aircraft audio panel routing
US20120140933A1 (en) 2010-12-03 2012-06-07 Garmin International, Inc. Aircraft audio panel

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Title
BMW, "BMW Technology Guide: Controller," http://www.bmw.com/com/en/insights/technology/technology-guide/articles/controller.html, accessed from Internet Jul. 6, 2016.
BMW, "BMW Technology Guide: Controller," http://www.bmw.com/com/en/insights/technology/technology—guide/articles/controller.html, accessed from Internet Jul. 6, 2016.
Garmin, "GMA™ 350H," https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/prod71339.html?cID=199?pID=71339, accessed from Internet Jul. 8, 2016.
International Preliminary Report on Patentability for PCT/GB2013/051832, dated Jan. 21, 2016.
International Search Report and Written Opinion for PCT/GB2013/051832, dated Apr. 2, 2014.

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
EP3020131A1 (fr) 2016-05-18
CN105556842A (zh) 2016-05-04
CA2917756C (fr) 2021-03-23
WO2015004407A1 (fr) 2015-01-15
CA2917756A1 (fr) 2015-01-15
EP3020131B1 (fr) 2019-09-11
US20160216781A1 (en) 2016-07-28

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